Speedbird_666

Meanwhile..... Overnight print done (100% infill). really pleased with the result. 10 Minutes of support removal, and another 10 to file/sand the angled front gives me this (The BUIS/Red Dot are placeholders):

To quote Jeremy Clarkson - 'I made a thing!' - well, printed something from thingiverse. Got my first 3D printer (Ender 3 V2) yesterday, printed my first Airsoft-related 'thing' today - a front sight rail for a G36 - removing the standard carry handle rail and putting a KAC/Tommy Built Style low profile rail on top instead. The rear Rail is gonna take another 8 hours. Slow Business this 3D printing malarkey.

Different types of printers. The smoother stuff you mention is likely SLS printed, which uses (frickin) lasers to fuse plastic powder together into a solid product. Not something many people can do at home, but there are plenty of SLS printing services available to small companies which allow them to outsource manufacturing for niche/short run products where injection moulding is not feasible. Here's an example, Badas designs makes drop stock adapter for various AEGs, they offer the same product in two guises, SLS print (outsourced I believe), and a 'normal' 3d print. The SLS has a fine grain texture to it, but generally looks more like a 'moulded ' product, whereas the normal 3D print has the layers (ridges) you refer to. There's also SLA printing for resin which produces fine detail prints (think Warhammer figures etc) but i don't think the outputs are particularly strong compared to the other methods (but could be wrong on that) .

Indeed. I have great plans for a spare G36 I've got knocking around, but I need to tackle the fundamentals first (machine setup and tuning, designing parts etc.) so it's more of a long-term aspiration. I've been working through quite a few Fusion360 tutorials - I'm good with 2D drafting in CAD (Autocad & Draftsight) but wrapping my head around the 3D stuff has been a bit trickier.

£168 shipped from Creality's UK Warehouse, not much more than an entry-level Airsoft Blaster. Funnily enough I saw this video the other day and thought of you:

Dear god...what have I done....? I've just ordered a 3D printer. There's a bunch of bits that I want to print for my various guns (including some of my own ideas), and my son has been nagging me for one for nearly a year now. Soooo.....I've got a Creality Ender 3 V2 on the way. This could be a whole lot of fun, or a slippery descent into frustration and madness. Time will tell.

I quite like that setup. Something I might experiment with - it would be easier to have a (smaller) battery on the goggles rather than use a wire to the back. Maybe one fan to suck, and the other to 'blow' to keep a constant flow of air from one side to the other?

I quickly put my setup together on a spare set of goggles (before I cut up my 'good' set). I'll wire in a switch at some point, but initial results in testing so far are promising. I will definitely use Sugru to mount it to cut down on noise/vibration a little as my Peltors tend to exacerbate things. 2200mAh (probably ~1800mAh 'real world') should give me way more than a game day's worth of continuous use.

Suck or blow? Just had a 25x25mm fan arrive today. 5v version - planning to use a cheap Poundland 2000mAh rechargeable USB power bank. It's a perfect fit on my paintball goggles (Empire E-Flex) - sits flush with the top of the lens.

More like delusional...?

That's the same setup I'm looking for with Son's bump helmet. What did you do with the goggles in terms of plumbing the air tube into them? I've seem some setups that blow-in from the sides (around the wearers temple - like exfog), and others blowing down through the top of the goggle frame.

Yeh - I've just ordered a 25mm fan to sit on top of my paintball goggles after my (normally pretty good) Fogtech DX wipes completely failed to deal with the moisture last week. Made a game in the afternoon nearly unplayable. I'm planning a 50mm blower setup to sit on the back of my son's bump helmet (exfog style) with a tube to the goggles, but I don't personally run a helmet so a smaller fan on top of the goggle frame is the best option for me.

I knew I'd seen it cheaper somewhere - but couldn't remember the vendor! I picked out Z1 only because I saw it in the store last week. Worth a punt for £9 IMO.

You go with something like this (Yes, I know it's gopping to look at)

Another thoroughly boring (but wholly necessary) purchase from @ak2m4 for my 'money pit' G36K. *Sigh* - I'm never buying a boneyard gun again...

That's a dick move by them. Their courier is not your problem. I hope PayPal handles this favorably for you.

Congrats! There is light at the end of the tunnel after all. I just hope things sort themselves out in the coming months to make ordering from TG a worthwhile proposition again in the future, if they ever decide to ship to the UK again that is.

We all had to start somewhere. Some basic kit and a decent set of boots will be a big help to start with. Make sure you don't skimp on eye protection. Best bit of playing kit for a beginner is the humble dump pouch - You can carry a spare mag or two and a bag of BBs and not have to fumble with pockets. Simply loops onto any belt you've got in your wardrobe. They only cost £8-9 posted from AliExpress, or £12 (not inc Postage) from a UK supplier.

Looks good, and much nicer with the correct trademarks (not that I'm a stitch bitch). Shipping was quick, what seller did you get it from? I could do with one on my CQB blaster.

That is a really interesting point that I had never thought of before. With most retailers offering credit options, it makes you wonder how big-ticket items will sell second hand (at a reasonable value for the seller) unless they are discontinued and/or collectable products. Say, if you are in the market for a high-end pre-upgraded TM NGRS package, you might think to yourself that it's worth paying the extra 30% to be A) able to buy it new and setup exactly how you want it straight away, B) comes with a retailers warranty and finally C) Pay it off in monthly installments. Tangent: Having experienced my own credit nightmares in the past (and all totally my fault)- I've had to work my butt off to be totally debt and finance free. Something I only achieved early this year after a decade or so of worry, sleepless nights and very nearly a divorce. The way credit is being thrown around on nearly every major retailer's website is scary, and it's so easy to be sucked in. But make one mistake (i.e. a late or missed payment) then your lovely interest-free purchase becomes a very nasty interest-attracting debt with sky-high rates. Make a few of those mistakes (and it can happen easier than you think) then you are completely fucked.

Went to Ground Zero a couple days ago for their mid-week half term game. It was the first time my middle son has played Airsoft. Lots of kids (I was expecting that), lots of non-hit taking on both sides (kinda expecting that), a dickhead with a green fricken laser flashing it into peoples faces (not expecting that). I was pretty bored with the game play by midday and was ready to jack it in after a couple of incidents with the green fricken laser in the morning, but couldn't because I had my two boys with me and the refs did sort out laser dick in the end. Turns out waving a green laser in peoples faces from 30m away (thus not for aiming, but as a deliberate distraction) was not against the site rules. Apparently, according to the ref it was 'only a low power laser'. 'Cool' I said - 'where's your testing equipment to verify that?' - no answer. Who the fuck thinks a green fricken laser is acceptable at essentially a kids airsoft day? I don't, but that's just me. Anyway - games were pretty uninteresting. The site is pretty uninteresting. It was just....meh. But my middle son loved it. And that's the main thing.

It makes me chuckle that a brand offshores their product for manufacturing, then gets pissy that the factories start knocking out 'third shift' products at stupidly low prices. I bet the SIG knockoff optics on Aliexpress are third shift products, coming off the same line during the 'third shift of the day' (the first two shifts are for the 'authorised' product to be sold by SIG) maybe with the odd QC fail thrown in for good measure.

There are some awesome deals on AliExpress. SF M300/600 clones can be had for less than £20 shipped too. There's a whole bunch of accessories (grips, stocks, rails etc.) on there to suit most people's needs. Sometimes it takes a bit of creative searching (e.g. using 'Gel Blaster' instead of 'Airsoft') to find the cool stuff. They are also collecting the VAT at source - so the stuff is clearing customs pretty quickly.

I was going to post links to AliExpress in my initial post, but I didn't want to piss on anyone's Cornflakes. If anything has a Nuprol sticker/logo on it, it's pretty much guaranteed that it's available for the half the price direct from China.

And double the price for having the Nuprol logo lasered onto it. ?